Tom Mes stood before a screen at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2000 and saw a future that no one else was looking for. While the rest of the film world celebrated the latest blockbusters, Mes found himself captivated by a retrospective of recent Japanese cinema that felt like a secret language waiting to be translated. That single afternoon sparked a vision that would eventually become Midnight Eye, a digital sanctuary dedicated to the obscure and the overlooked. The idea did not come from a boardroom or a corporate strategy meeting but from a quiet realization that English-speaking audiences were missing out on a vast ocean of creativity. He wanted to build a place where the strange, the beautiful, and the forgotten could find a home on the internet.
A Brotherhood Of Words
The foundation of Midnight Eye was built on the unlikely partnership of three men with distinct skills and a shared obsession. Tom Mes brought the editorial vision and the critical eye, while his brother Martin Mes provided the technical architecture as a designer and programmer. They were joined by Jasper Sharp, a fellow editor whose deep knowledge of Japanese culture and cinema added a layer of authority to the project. Together, they launched the website in the spring of 2001, creating a space that felt more like a private club for cinephiles than a public blog. Their collaboration was not just about writing reviews; it was about curating a history that was being written in real time. The trio worked tirelessly to ensure that the site remained a non-profit endeavor, driven by passion rather than profit margins.The Guide To The Unknown
In 2004, the team behind Midnight Eye solidified their reputation by publishing The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film. This book was not merely a collection of opinions but a comprehensive archive containing over 100 reviews of Japanese films that had previously received little attention in the West. The publication featured a foreword by Hideo Nakata, a director known for his work in the horror genre, which lent the book an air of prestige and insider knowledge. Throughout its history, the website published articles by numerous contributors who brought diverse perspectives to the table. They conducted interviews with legendary figures such as Takashi Miike, Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, and Yuki Tanada, creating a dialogue between the creators and the audience. These conversations became a vital part of the site's legacy, offering insights that were rarely found in mainstream media.The Final Curtain
On the 29th of June 2015, the creators of Midnight Eye made the decision to close the chapter on their fifteen-year journey. Tom Mes, Jasper Sharp, and Martin Mes announced that no further content would be added to the website, marking the end of an era for English-language Japanese cinema coverage. In their statement, they wrote that the site would remain as and where it is for the time being, but after fifteen years of creating the main source of info on Japanese cinema in the English language, they were calling it a day. The decision was not made lightly, as the site had become a primary resource for scholars, fans, and industry professionals. The closure was a bittersweet moment for the community that had grown around the platform, but it also served as a testament to the enduring power of their work.